I have the acetal of propylene glycol called 2-ethyl-4-methyl-1,3-dioxolane. It isn't soluble in water. I'm aware that acetals can can be reversed
back to their glycol and aldehyde/ketone when they undergo acid hydrolysis. All over the internet and including this particular acetal hydrolysis is
described as easy however with no procedure.
I added a bunch of conc H2SO4 in water and let it stir + heated to 70c and both layers turned a dark maroon color but I still observed 2 layers which
shows I didn't do it properly.
I did find a comment somewhere that said "I was able to destroy the Dioxolane by boiling 5 mL of the mixture in 50 mL of 1.5 % HCl for three hours" So
it does work however that is a excessively large amount of water for such a little amount of dioxolane.
How would I correctly attempt this procedure using for example 500g of the acetal. How much water and conc sulfuric acid or HCL? How long? What temp?
Why use the amount that you suggest? I know the theory and that it works but at this point I need to be spoon fed at this last step.